Boredom

There's nothing to do. Well, not really. There's lots of things I could do right now, but none of them that I want to. I'd go to bed, but I'm hardly tired enough yet, and I don't feel like doing anything else.

Well, random things to start. I've been thinking about the people that are leaving Taco Bell quite a bit lately, and it really seems that although we are losing good, hard working people, some of them are for the better. Let's do things in a list sort of idea.

Manoah

When he wants to do his work, he does it well. Unfortunately, most of the time, he'd rather do anything but (or so it seems). 99% of the time I worked with him, whenever things died down (as in we had no customers), he'd either be relaxing at front cash or something, or smoking outside. I suppose that's partly because he gained an immunity of sorts to most of the managers. If you watched at least the first part of Taco Hell (I really should upload those somewhere, but I'd have to find a spot where they won't just be stumbled across), you'll know that he said something to the effect of "Yeah. Sheila and Earl's gonna write me up. Mmhmm", about his near-constant smoke breaks. Anyone else that went out as often as he did would likely be severely reprimanded.

That's really another thing that bothers me about smokers there though. Pretty much anytime they want, they can go out to have a smoke, and generally take their time doing so. For us people that don't smoke, we're never given the chance to just go outside and sit down for 5 minutes to relax. Such small breaks can make all the difference during lunch or supper rushes, and although the number of people working at whatever given time usually makes it so that such breaks aren't possible, it should seriously be taken into consideration.

I mean, on a typical supper shift, there are anywhere from 6 to 8 people working. Three on line, one on front cash, one or two on drive through, and, if it's busy, two on mini. Otherwise they're generally off doing backups, or slacking off. It's fully possible to run the store with a maximum of 4 people during a supper shift. Two on line, one on drive through, and one on front cash. Sadly enough though, the common view seems to be "The busier we are, the more people we need working." I'm really getting off-topic though.

As for Manoah, I won't miss him too much. Yes, he did his job well when he wanted to, but once again, he seemed to decide what to do on a "Do I want to do this?" basis.

Jerome

He's a smoker as well, but unlike Manoah, the only time he went out to smoke was every half hour or so, provided we were dead, or when there was nothing to be done. It's really funny. He pretty much just became a manager, and now he's transferring to some Taco Bell in London. Overall, he was a fun guy to work with, not only because he knew to get stuff done when the opportunity was available, but also because he knew how to have fun at work. The majority of the food swaps we've done recently have been initiated by him. Other nights, when he was in the mood for non-Taco Bell food, he'd order pizza or whatever out of his own pocket, and share it with everyone.

What's more, he was actually fair with what he put people on. For example, he wouldn't put the same person on line or drive through two nights in a row, unless it was unavoidable. Even when such a thing happened though, he did take the time to apologize to the person, and explain why they had to be in the same position again.

I will miss working with him, but of course, the possibility of him coming back down to Chatham once in a while to say "hi" isn't entirely out of the question.

Amy

Can't really say alot about her. For the most part, she worked either opens, or lunch / supper shifts. The one open I worked so far, she was there as well, and she was quite helpful in telling me what needed to be done. Not just "Okay. Why are you standing around? This needs to be done, and this as well! Come on!" Then when she finally started closing a couple nights a week, she actually said things about how she felt sorry for us, after seeing what we closers get left with at night. It's just nice to take someone who we was previously complaining about our closes, and have them completely turn around in their attitude about them. She was pretty fun to work with as well. Very talkative, liked to get everyone involved with the goings-on, and such. As an added bonus, she was one of the few closers that didn't smoke.

I'll miss her as well, but she's apparently still going to be working one day a week 'till the New Year.

Kevin

Saving the best for last. There were nights when we were all but completely screwed over upon coming in. Dishes piled high at the back, line and mini still going in all their glory, and basically the whole store being a mess, and yet two or three hours after our shifts started, we had things cleaned up like they were done all along. He's one of the few people that actually bothered to try to get things done when we were dead. Whether it be wiping down line, sweeping, or helping with the dishes, he'd find something that needed to be done, and he'd do it. He doesn't smoke either, and he actually would get quite angry at times about how all the smokers would be outside, while the store was a mess.

One night a while ago, he got put on drive through, and aside from him, it was me, Manoah, and Ange working. There was plenty to be done, and yet as soon as the cars stopped, Ange and Manoah were outside smoking. He went out to ask them if they'd come in and find something to do, and got threatened with a write-up. From there, he got angry about that, leading to Ange getting angry at him, and telling him that if he was going to have an attitude, he could go home. That was one time I just wanted to turn to her, and say "Be quiet. I don't care whether you're a manager or not right now. There's lots of stuff to be done. You two need to stop smoking, and actually work on getting things done, because we don't want to be here at 6 in the morning. Just shut up, and find something to do. There'll be plenty of time to smoke when you get home."

He was also one of the few people that I could talk to, and not have to worry about turning to someone else and repeating what I just told him. In his own words "I'm not here to make friends. If you want to be friends, that's cool, but do your work." The way I see it, work comes before fun. At least there.

I'll definitely miss him, but he's still going to be there for at least another week, so yeah.

According to Josh as well, he's going to laugh when they come back in a week saying Minacs didn't work out. I know he's pissed that Amy and Kevin are both leaving for that place, and I'd be relieved if they came back to Taco Bell for whatever reason, but it's just a waste of energy to get mad at them for going to a different job.

Next thing on my mind, I want to buy something. I was psyched for pretty much this whole past week about getting a Wii yesterday morning, but now that things didn't work out, the whole "I need to buy something" feeling's come back to me. I don't mean going out and getting food or something, but more something for the computer, or a new game or somesuch. I've been wanting to get new speakers for the computer for a while now, but I don't know how much I'd be spending on them, as well as that, like with getting a new monitor, the speakers we have right now work seemingly fine. Not only that, but it also seems like a waste of money right now. Here's what my whole money situation looks like at present.

I have around $2,300 in my bank account right now. With any luck (and not spending too much), I'll be back up to $3,000 by Christmas, from getting my work pay. We get our money from our Grandpa sometime in December, and as I understand it, the grandchildren are getting $12,000. Add that to the $3,000, and you get $15,000. Also, when we get that money, Mom's giving half of hers to Dad (she's getting something like $60,000). Dad owes me $2,500 that I lent him so long ago so he could get the van fixed. Mom also owes me $1,000 that I loaned her so she could pay her bills. $3,500 + $15,000 = $18,000.

All I really want to get at present with that money is a good laptop, so really, any upgrades made to this computer would be moot at that point. What a quandry.

Anyways, that'll have to wait, as I think I'm going to go to bed now. I want to call in sick to work tomorrow, because I do still have a cold, and it is Saturday. We'll have to wait and see.

Oh, I also got a reply back to the email I sent via EB Games' website about their Black Friday hours (note that the subject line was "Black Friday Hours?"):